Tonight's Dinner: Corn grits with shrimp

Jennifer is a stay-at-home mom with a passion for writing, vintage clothes, old movies and cooking, especially dinners and desserts. Jennifer loves writing so much that whenever she has a spare moment, she spends it writing fiction or ad...

Fresh corn makes delicious grits

Grits are commonly found in a box on the shelf of your local supermarket. And while the boxed grits are quick and easy to make, cooking up grits made from fresh corn are much, much tastier.

Since corn will only be in season for a few more weeks, I'm trying to buy as much as I possibly can before it disappears. Fresh corn is the best because it's sweet and has many of those important vitamins and minerals we all need. While frozen corn has those same vitamins and minerals, nothing compares to the flavor of fresh, right-off-the-ear corn. It's delicious in soups, tossed on top of salads or ground up into meal for muffins. But one of my favorite corn dishes is grits. Grated up and mixed with milk and butter, there's nothing tastier. You can enjoy the grits as a warm snack, or you can pile your favorite protein on top. No matter how you eat them, corn grits are absolutely out of this world... and oh, so much tastier (and healthier) than the box.

Corn grits with shrimp

Serves 4

Ingredients:

5 ears of corn, shucked and grated

1/4 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

1 stick butter

3 ounces prosciutto, sliced into strips

1/2 onion, sliced

1/3 pound sugar snap peas

1 cup corn kernels

1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined

Directions:

Simmer the grated corn and its juices in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the milk and stir until it gets thick, about five minutes. Season with salt and pepper and set aside but keep warm.

Melt four tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the prosciutto and cook until browned, about five minutes. Add the onion, peas and corn and cook until tender, about five minutes. Add the shrimp and cook until they begin to curl, about two minutes.

Add the remaining butter to the skillet and cook until the shrimp are fully cooked, about two more minutes.

Spoon the corn grits into four bowls, top with the shrimp mixture and serve.